Keeper of the Spatula

Chapter 10: New Travel Buddy

The next
afternoon, SpongeBob, Patrick, and Squidward walked down a grassy field to
continue their journey. SpongeBob decided to lead the way in place of his late
boss, Mr. Krabs, but this didn’t seem to affect him with the burden of having
to carry a cursed spatula as well- not that the latter ever burdened him.
Though none of this helped since without a map, they had no idea where they
were supposed to go.

“I’m
bored.” Patrick announced, blurting the previous moment of silence. “Can we
play another game?”

“No.”
Squidward immediately answered.

But
SpongeBob happily answered, “I’d love to. We hadn’t done that in a while now.
How about I Spy?”

“All
right! I wanna go first!” Patrick then quickly tried to think of an object
around them that he could see. “Okay, I spy something that’s green.”

SpongeBob
scratched his chin, trying to spot an object around them that fit the
description of ‘green’, but Squidward beat him to it.

“It’s the
grass.” Squidward answered, deadpanned.

“Darn!”
Patrick exclaimed in disappointed, and then continued with the game. “Okay, I
spy something green…and wide.”

“Well,
this is nothing but pointless!” Squidward yelled back. “There’s no reason to
play stupid childish games while we’re running around in the middle of
nowhere!”

SpongeBob
tried to come between the two with reason, “Hey, hey, guys…there’s no point in
arguing about it. Besides, we’re not running around nowhere, we’re just fine.”

“SpongeBob,
do you even have the slightest idea where we’re going?” Squidward asked,
looking sharply at him.

SpongeBob
giggled at this. “Oh, Squidward, ha ah ah ah, do I even have the slightest- ha
ah ah ah- No.” then he slumped over with a sad frown. “Honestly…I’m still
working on that plan that’ll help us find a way to get to the Arctic.”

“Yeah!
Whoo-hoo!” Patrick suddenly cheered until he noticed the other two not as
amused as he was. “Wait, is this a bad thing?”

“All we’ve
been doing is going around in circles!” Squidward angrily pointed out.

But
SpongeBob just brushed away this idea. “Oh, don’t be ridiculous, Squidward.” He
said, waving his hand as he smiled. “No, we haven’t.”

SpongeBob
looked down to see they were both right, and that their footprints were walking
in one big circle.

Squidward
then covered his face as if he were about to cry. “We’re gonna die out here.”

“No, we won’t,
Squidward.” SpongeBob assured as he comforted him by patting his back. “Why
don’t we rest here for a bit? I’ll gather up some firewood and we can have some
lunch.”

With this,
SpongeBob ran off, leaving Squidward and Patrick to relax while he went to
gather twigs for a fire to cook lunch.

SpongeBob
was happily skipping through the wilderness, carrying a couple sticks in his
right arm that he had gathered up while humming a little tune. He looked around
the trees to see if any twigs had fallen off the branches, and once he found
one, he picked it up, and did not expect who he saw.

“Ow!”
Plankton yelled after falling backwards, presumably since he was lying on the
stick SpongeBob had picked up. “What the barnacle was that all about?”

“Plankton?!”
SpongeBob shouted in shock as he dropped his sticks on the ground.

“Oh,
SpongeBob, it’s you.” Plankton said in a now friendly tone. “Fancy seeing you
out here.”

SpongeBob
bent down on his knees to get a closer look at the single-cell organism. “What
are you doing all the way out here?”

“Oh, you
know…just getting away from city life to get some fresh air.”

“Oh
really?” SpongeBob replied, obviously buying the lie. “I sure wish I can say
the same. Patrick, Squidward, and I are on a mission after Mr. Krabs wanted-”
but before he could finish, his eyes bulged out and he suddenly broke into
tears, “Ohhh! Mr. Krabs!”

Plankton
stared at SpongeBob in agape as the sponge broke down onto the floor and sobbed
violently over the loss of his boss.

“Uh…hey,
kid,” Plankton asked in a calm tone over his sobs. “You’re kinda creeping me
out here.” He said, reaching out to him.

But
SpongeBob sat up and calmed down a bit. “I’m sorry, Plankton. It’s just that
ever since we lost Mr. Krabs…”

“What?”
Plankton asked in surprise when he began to understand what SpongeBob was
trying to say. “You mean Krabs is…”

But Plankton
didn’t seem saddened by this news and instead grinned. “This is better than I
thought!” but then he caught himself before SpongeBob did and put on his best
sympathetic look. “I mean, that’s terrible, SpongeBob. Why don’t you tell your
ol’ friend Plankton everything that happened?”

Even
though Plankton was anything but a friend to him, SpongeBob decided to open up
to the single-cell organism. “Well…Mr. Krabs took Squidward, Patrick, and me on
a journey to destroy a cursed spatula that held the soul of a deceased fry cook
into a volcano at the Arctic Ocean, and along the way… we lost Mr. Krabs
forever. But despite all that, I decided that we have to finish the journey to
free Hoagie Grindulas’s soul from the spatula like Mr. Krabs would’ve wanted.”

“Yeah,
yeah, that’s fascinating.” Plankton nonchalantly said, annoyed from having to
hear more than he wanted from SpongeBob’s long-winded explanation. “About that
cursed spatula…” he began asking interest.

But
SpongeBob went on, not noticing Plankton’s disinterest. “I just wish we knew
where we were.” He said in a sad tone. “I don’t even know which way to go to
the Arctic Ocean. If Squidward and Patrick find out, they’ll be so
disappointed.”

An idea
suddenly lit up in Plankton’s eye. “You know, SpongeBob,” he said in a smooth
tone, “I think I might know the way to the Arctic Ocean.”

SpongeBob
eyes suddenly lit up in happiness as he regained his old giddy smile, “You do?”

“Of course
I do.” Plankton answered with a smile, knowing SpongeBob was buying his new
lie. “I…go over there every two months to ski.”

Then
Plankton suddenly turned around and began walking away. “Well, see ya.” As he
began to walk away, he smirked and muttered, “Three…two…one…”

“Wait,
Plankton!” SpongeBob called as he got on his hands and knees to get as close as
he can to Plankton height. “Please will you show us the way there? We need your help! You’re the only one who
can get us to the Arctic Ocean!”

Unfortunately
for Plankton, SpongeBob was a little too
close that his rancid breath was puffing all over his body. Plankton tried as
hard as he could to fan it away. “First you should do something about your
breath.”

“Oh,
sorry.” SpongeBob apologized with a giggle as he stood on his knees. “It’s been
a while since I brushed my teeth.” Then he whispered loudly to him, “There’s no
bathroom out here, you know.”

“Yeah…” Plankton
groaned in an annoyed tone until he coughed in his hand and put on a friendly
smile. “But to get back on topic, I’ll be glad to go to the Arctic Ocean with
you, SpongeBob. I’d just love to help a friend in need.”

“Thanks,
Plankton.” SpongeBob said with a warm smile, and he sniffled as if about to cry
again. “You don’t know how much this means to me.”

At the
campsite that Patrick and Squidward had set up, Squidward was rummaging through
Patrick’s mini fridge. “When was the last time you cleaned this thing?”

“Oh,
fellas!” SpongeBob called as he walked back over. “I’m back!”

Squidward
looked over at SpongeBob and crossed his arms. “About time. Where’s that
firewood.”

“Oops,”
SpongeBob peeped with a sheepish giggle, forgetting the job he had volunteered
to do. “I kinda forgot the firewood back there.” He got an eager grin, “But…instead,
I picked up a new travel buddy!”

He held
out his hand to show Plankton standing on his palm. He gave the sponge an
annoyed look as he dully said, “Try to stop saying that as well.”

Squidward
was surprised to see Plankton all the way out here in the middle of nowhere.
But Patrick just smiled and waved. “Hi, Mr. Plankton!” he greeted. “Are you
really gonna be traveling with us?”

“You got
that right…Patrick is it?” Plankton answered with a calm smile. “I’ll be your
new guide on our journey to the Arctic Ocean.”

“Do you
have a map?” Patrick asked.

“No.”
Plankton dully answered.

“Do you
have marshmallows?”

“No.”

“Do you
know any road trip songs?”

“No.”

While
Patrick kept Plankton occupied with his pointless questions, Squidward pushed
SpongeBob away to the other side of the campsite and quickly asked, “SpongeBob,
can I have a word with you?”

Once the
two were alone, Squidward began saying, “Are you really expecting someone like
Plankton to lead us to a volcano in the middle of a snow-covered wasteland?”

“Of course
I do, Squidward.” SpongeBob nodded with his positive smile. “I told you I’d
find a way for us to get to the Arctic Ocean.”

“For all
we know, he could be planning something right now, and you’re too ignorant see
that.”

“That’s
silly, Squidward. Everyone knows I’m not arrogant.”

Squidward
sighed in defeat and walked away. “I give up.”

SpongeBob
did not notice his sour attitude, so instead, waved and called out, “Okay then!
I’ll just go get that firewood and start cooking with Hoagie!” he took out the
golden spatula.

While
Plankton continued to be bothered by Patrick, his eye widens when he spots the
golden spatula sparkling in SpongeBob’s hand.

“It’s
beautiful…” Plankton said to himself as he watched SpongeBob walk off with it.
“It’s precious…” he quickly shook his head to snap out of his daze. “Get it
together, Plankton. I gotta find a way to get that spatula from the boob’s
possession.”

He tapped
his chin for a minute, and then snapped his fingers with a smile. “I got it!
All I have to do is lead them on for a while, and when the time comes, I’ll
take that special spatula and leave them to wander around nowhere for decades!”

He
finished concocting his plan with an evil laugh until he noticed Patrick
staring at him, having listened to the whole thing. He coughed in his hand and
added, “Which is what I would do if I
were evil and secretly plotting to dupe you all.”

“Oh,
okay,” Patrick said, nodding in understanding. “Boy, you really had me for a
second.”

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